Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Imagine being in the same room as the trend makers, influencers, twitterati, bloggerati of the Indian Social Media universe. Thanks to BlogAdda.com I grabbed this opportunity with open arms at the Social Media Week 2014 in Mumbai. The Social Media Week (#SMWMumbai) was held simultaneously in 11 cities, 9 countries, 1000 events and 3000 speakers. It was indeed surreal meeting and greeting the faces behind the twitter handles you follow. And even better to be greeting, rubbing shoulders with bloggers like oneself and the bloggerati you once wished to have a tete-a-tete with.

The SMWMumbai was held from 22nd to 26th September 2014 this time at Novotel, Juhu. Let me tell you the hotel location is just fabulous with the waters of Juhu beach beckoning you to come and take a stroll on the sands. Having missed the first 3 days, I made sure I wouldn't miss the days to come. However, due to holiday constraints, I could only attend the session on Thursday, 25th September.

There were 4 stages where events were taking place simultaneously. The Pioneer stage, Social Community stage, the Learning stage and the Media & Entertainment stage.

I reached the venue well before time and was greeted with sumptuous breakfast buffet. Hot steaming mug of cappuchino and soft mini donuts and cinnamon puffs beckoned me. I then proceeded towards the Social Community stage to attend Ansoo Gupta's presentation on 'Using Social Media to Enhance your travel'. Ansoo Gupta, COO Pinstorm presented the topic effortlessly highlighting when to rely on social media for deals/discounts and when to turn it off. The presentation simply enchanted me only with the sole reason : how to travel solo. It was also awesome meeting Rutavi Mehtaof Photokatha who was hosting the session. A group photograph and we went on to the next session.

The following session was Speed Blogging and Tweetathon hosted and conducted by Yellow Seed Solutions. Yours truly was super excited and geared up with laptop in tow. Wi-fi connected and all set for the fingers tapping away against the laptop's keyboard and cellphone's touchscreen. 6 minutes to blog and 1 minute to tweet impromptu on topics ranging from 'Digi Soul', 'Alia' and 'Curves and kisses' to 'Mai ye shaadi nahi karoongi' and 'Ye vada pav sir mera hai'. It was nice to see your tweets being retweeted and favourited in real time. First half of the day ended so with a break for lunch with time to network.

Well fed and watered I headed to the Learning Stage where live workshops or Masterclass were taking place. Joined halfway into the Masterclass for 'DoubleClick Digital Marketing Secrets: More Insights, Better Decision Making' conducted by Ram Mohan Pai, Lead- Digital Operations Quality, Accenture – Media Technology operations for Google. Then stayed on for the Masterclass hosted and conducted by Digital Vidya on 'Social Media for Lead Generation and Sales'. Digital Vidya's Pradeep Chopra elucidated on the topic with good case studies on lead generation via various social media platforms. He described his own experience through examples of Hippo's engagement on Twitter, damage control and customer service by Ola Cabs. He cited other examples of usage of QR code on Guinness' Cup (pure genius idea) and tweet to order idea by Faaso's.

During tea/ coffee break, I then headed to the concluding minutes of Ashwath Ganesh's presentation on 'Life after Facebook Zero' – a whitepaper published by Social@OglivyDuring tea/ coffee break, I then headed to the concluding minutes of Ashwath Ganesh's presentation on 'Life after Facebook Zero' – a whitepaper published by Social@Oglivy.
Next up was 'Face Off with Anaggh Desai – So you think you can be an Influencer'. This was a panel discussion with social media heavyweights like Deepali Nair -CMO Club Mahindra Holidays, Rushina Munshaw Ghildiyal – Blogger and Founder APB Cookstudio, Kiran Manral – Author of Once upon a crush,Rohan Joshi Writer and Stand-up comedian, Dharmesh Gandhi – Content Strategist for many Star channels and Jaydeep Shetty – Founder, Mineral. This session was good rollicking fun breaking the formal presentation code. Anaggh Desai moderated this fun discussion.

The panel discussion ended a few minutes past 5, and I was spoiled for choice between attending the subsequent sessions 'Stand-Up Comedy in India: Online Viral, Offline Housefull” featuring stand-up comedians Ashish Shakya, Tanmay Bhat, Aditi Mittal and Rohan Joshi versus Fireside Chat with Rajkumar Hirani versus 'Social Bollywood- Where Hollywood meets Bollywood' featuring Malini Agarwal Blogger-in-Chief of MissMalini.com versus Jeff Bullas' MasterClass on 'The 8 steps to becoming a World Class Blogger for Business and Revenue' on a G+ hangout from Australia. Such multiple action packed sessions lined up for the evening. I wish I could attend ALL of them. Decisions, decisions.

I choseJeff Bullas' MasterClass session for the genuine and simple learnings from the master himself. Pure 90 minutes of enriching session on how blogging can be leveraged for business with clear goals and focus.

Overall the entire event was conducted smoothly and synchronously and it was a delight to be a part of the Social Media Week 2014 in Mumbai.